First things first: upgrade your channel. There’s absolutely no reason not to. The new design is sleeker, more viewer-friendly, and is just more dynamic than the old design. Plus, it’s pretty painless to upgrade. Simply visit your Channel Design page and click “Upgrade my channel.”

You’ll notice immediately that most of your previous channel customizations are already carried over in the new design, which is good news if you put a lot of time and effort into designing your channel’s look and feel.

Now that you’ve upgraded, you’ll immediately want to edit the video content settings for your newly enhanced channel. Thankfully this can be done with just a few clicks. Find the edit button in upper right-hand corner to view the content selection menu. You can opt to display uploaded videos, favorites, playlists, or a combination of all three.

If you select the playlists option, you can then individually select the video playlists you want to include. You also have the option to adjust the featured content set and the featured video for your channel. Since the featured video is the one channel visitors will see first, we suggest you peruse your options to find the right setting.

In-Channel Editing

In-channel editing is the new black on YouTube, and though basic in concept — you can edit everything without leaving your channel — it’s a key time-saver and an incredibly useful upgrade.

You’ll notice that the new design is replete with editing options everywhere. You’ll want to take advantage of these to tweak the information displayed about you, your activity, and your videos.

Here’s what you can edit right from the channel page: recent activity, privacy settings, displayed settings for profile information, subscriptions, subscribers, friends, and channel comments, as well as channel settings, themes, and modules. You’ve got a lot of power right at your fingertips.

When it comes to theme and module editing, users with no CSS or design experience will find themselves completely at ease with beautifying their channel design. The themes and colors are pretty self-explanatory, so you can pick a preset theme, start toying with colors, and get an as-it-happens preview while you tweak. You can still upload a custom background image and adjust the coloring for every element of your channel. Once you’re done, just click save to publish the new design publicly.

Also make sure to take a quick look at the modules tab if you’re interested in removing or displaying content modules. You can do away with, or include, these modules: comments, recent activity, friends, subscribers, groups, and subscriptions.

Extra Channel Tips

Adjusting background image file size: One annoying thing about YouTube background images is that they’re constrained to 256 KB, which means if you have a high resolution image, you’re out of luck unless you’re able to compress the file size with a photo editor. If all of this sounds foreign, not to worry.

An easy way to downsize your image is to use an online photo editor like Picnik. Simply upload or access your online images from Flickr or Facebook, and click the “Save and Share” tab. You’ll notice that you can select from a few different photo formats (try JPG), and then use the sliding bar to compress the image file size below 256 KB. Click to save your photo, and now all you need to do is upload it to YouTube (Edit Channel -> Themes and Colors -> show advanced options).

Expand your color palette: YouTube also only lets you select from 64 different colors, but you can really use any browser-safe color by inputting the right hex code. Why not use a web color chart like this one to have even more choices? Just enter the code of your choosing into the box next to the color palate, hit enter on your keyboard, and your preview is instantly updated.

Keep up with what’s new: YouTube has an under the radar blog dedicated to the Channels Beta project. Since this is a beta offering, YouTube is pushing out changes and adding new features on a very regular basis. Subscribe to this blog to be the first to know about what’s new.

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8 Comments to “Customize Your YouTube Channel Tutorials”

Michael KAugust 25, 2013 at 3:14 am

I’m a new beauty guru on youtube and I’ve recently posted two hauls and a ‘spring summer outfit ideas video’ but I’m really stuck on thinking of some new video ideas, I’ve already checked out lots of other beautyguru’s for inspiration but i still can’t think of anything!

I want some really good fashion type video’s I could do (ootd, beach outfits, tags, challenges how to style….. etc.) please list as many ‘fashion/styling’ type videos as you can.

I really miss the old YouTube where you could customize your page and use streams. It was SO fun, now every channel looks the same and it’s really boring. I was wondering how I could contact YouTube other than by e-mail to suggest them bring back the old layout and streams. Thanks in advance.

Paul MSeptember 24, 2013 at 11:24 am

Does anyone know bout the new nintendo 3ds coming bout will be able connect to wi-fi without having Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector ? Also I wanted to ask is there any DS system that doesn’t need the USB to use the internet ?

Marlon PSeptember 25, 2013 at 1:37 am

I really want to customize mah channel. They have a customization tool thingy up top, but a lot of channels have a ton more stuff like more options and little boxes that say “check out these other channels.” I know I probably sound like I’m not making a lot of sense, but could someone give me a complete tutorial on it? Thanks!

I alot of popular youtubers, have really cool customized channels, such as iJustine, who has a custom subscribe button. My question is does anyone know how to make tweaks like that? or do you have to pay a professional to make it for you?

EzioAuditore1459November 4, 2013 at 9:24 am

Just as the title describes, I have been making videos on youtube and I would like a nice intro. I make gameplay videos and tutorials. Please send me a message here or leave a comment with details on what I need to do and what you need from me. My channel is here http://www.youtube.com/user/Hannon2112?feature=guide

jaiminNovember 13, 2013 at 12:15 am

I want to be able to play Doom on my computer, and I hope they’ve modded the first game to be able to be played on a new computer. I don’t want Doom 3, I just want the original.